Best Way to Get Six-Pack Abs

Just about anyone can have a six pack. Well, just about anyone who is less than 4 months pregnant. Is it easy? For some people it may be, but the majority of people will have to bust their butt to get to a body fat percentage low enough to see a six pack. Sorry, but I did not want to give you false promises that a six pack is easy to achieve, and it takes little effort. Firstly, let\’s clear up a myth. I\’m sure that many of you reading this believe that if you do enough crunches and abdominal exercises, that coveted six pack will be there in no time. Unfortunately, that\’s not the case. The muscle has no connection whatsoever to the layer of fat covering it. In other words, you may have the strongest abdominals in the world, but if there is a layer of fat covering them, you\’ll never be able to see them (by the way, for the ladies, the same thing applies to your buns and thighs, and back of the arms).

So if crunches are not the answer, how do you get that elusive six pack? The thing to do first and foremost is to look at your diet. You don\’t have to get fancy right from the beginning.

At first, take care of the basics. The basics are very simple, they aren\’t flashy, but they work. They won\’t take you all the way to a six pack (although for a few of you, they will), but they\’ll do a substantial amount of work to get you there. So what are the basics, anyway?

1. Don\’t drink your calories. Only have drinks that are 0 calories. Water, diet pop, green tea, etc.
2. Have a large breakfast and a small dinner. How many of you are guilty of having this reversed?
3. Have a serving of protein with every meal. Protein includes meat, fish, eggs and nuts. Protein speeds up metabolism more than fat and carbohydrates, because just to metabolize the protein you ate burns a substantial amount of calories (relatively).
4. Have a serving of fruits and/or vegetables with every meal. For the most part, fruits and vegetables are foods that occupy a lot of space, without having a lot of calories. The benefit? You feel full, without having that translate necessarily into gaining fat.

Those are the diet basics. Now, on to the strength training basics:

1. Do some form of resistance training 3 times per week.
2. Include at least 1 multi-joint lower body exercise at a weight that you can do AT MOST 20 times. If you can do that exercise more than 20 times, the weight is too light. Squats, deadlifts and lunges are good choices. Include 2 or 3 more multi-joint upper body exercises. Pushups (on the knees are fine too), pulldowns, rows, and overhead presses are good choices.
3. Whatever else you decide to do is a bonus. Cardio is optional, and abdominal exercises are optional (sounds a bit odd, doesn\’t it?)

By now you are in decent shape. You probably have a flat stomach, but still no six pack. The basics only get you so far, but if you\’re really serious about that six pack, it\’s time to get more advanced.

I should note: DO NOT go to the advanced tips if you don\’t have the basics out of the way.

How do you know when to move on to the more advanced tips? Once the basic tips stop working. And how will you know when they stop working? You will have to track your progress. Weigh yourself and measure your waist circumference every 2 weeks, and WRITE IT DOWN. It\’s even better if you have access to a body fat tester. This is how you know when progress stops.

So now that progress stopped, it is time to start writing down everything you eat. I mean EVERYTHING. When you have it written down, find out the total number of calories, the amount of carbohydrates, and the amount of protein.

Once you stop losing fat, drop your carbohydrate intake by about 20%. Maintain that intake for 2 weeks, and see if you\’ve started making progress again. If you have, keep it up. If you haven\’t, raise your protein by 20%. Continue alternating dropping carbohydrates and raising protein, until you reach your goal.

Like I said, it won\’t be easy. Some parts of this are a pain in the neck. But if you want it bad enough, you will muster up the discipline to go through with it.

So if there is anything you should get out of this article is the importance of strictly monitoring (by writing down) your food intake.

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